Byrning Protector
by Galux Phoenix
Summary: After CCGF. A mercenary is hired as a protector, but when she is faced with more than she can handle she sends for back up. But when things settle once more her past comes back to torment her once again.
1. Prologue

Hey people. I got the first CC DVD for my birthday and it kinda inspired me to actually write a fic about it.  
  
ibBYRNING PROTECTOR./i/b  
By Galux Phoenix.  
  
The bandits attacked in the middle of the night when only one of Zi's two moons shone down on the village of Lirael. Many shadows fell around the silent land and its buildings. The village had suffered three separate bandit attacks in the last two months. Already two of the village men had died in the attempt to save their homes. The protector they had previously had left a week before the first attack and left the village almost completely defenceless.  
  
And now they were going to be attacked once again, and loss what little was left of their hard gained crops. Lirael didn't have enough zoids to defend herself properly, and even then they were only a couple of ancient Gustaves.  
  
As the five bandit zoids surrounded the village from different directions someone was watching on with loathing.  
  
~*~*~*  
  
Startling green- grey eyes were narrowed in distaste as their owner looked at the village and the bandits there to issue even more suffering. Clayr Byrning jumped from the back of her specially modified Zaber Fang and into its cockpit. Her hands moved with the precision of many zoid battles as she worked the controls. The midnight black Zaber Fang jumped down the small cliff it had been situated on.  
  
As the zoid ran on Clayr opened the missile compartments and checked their stock. They had three missiles.  
  
She was two short then.  
  
That meant she would have to go into close combat which was not one of her favourite things to do. As she fired the first missile at the closet zoid to her -an old Guysak- she flipped a switch an let the custom made stealth shield slide over her zoid, the one and only Unseen Hunter. The second missile, like the first one, hit true and another bandit zoid collapsed.  
  
Just three left then.  
  
A visual screen opened on one of the specially programmed cockpit walls; one of the bandit zoids was going to fire on one of the village's grain stores. The largest one. But before it could take proper aim and then fire Clayr was upon it. Her zoid clawed at it until she managed to sever one of its front legs off and it could attack no more.  
  
The second last zoid rounded on her, even though she could not be seen in the dark of the night. The last bandit came up on her from opposite the other zoid, trapped her between them. They opened fire on her. Many missed her and went wide as they couldn't pin her position, most of the wide missiles churned up the desert dust. Tossing up the dust to reveal her position to them. These pilots were smart.  
  
But, then again, Clayr Byrning was smarter.  
  
The midnight black Zaber Fang jumped. Higher than a normal zoid could, and landed on the zoid in front of her, crushing part of its system as she did so. Just to be sure she used her last missile to destroy the combat systems. When she turned her zoid around, ready to face the other zoid, she froze.  
  
The remaining zoid had gone. Just plainly disappeared. The old, worn and battered Liger didn't have stealth capabilities, otherwise Clayr would have seen it - if you spent most of your life with a zoid that could shield itself from anyone's sight you got pretty good at spotting stealth shielded zoids.  
  
The pilot had obviously thought better of having their butt kicked all the way back to the village gaol cells.  
  
Clayr gave a small smirk before muttering about the shabbiness of bandit attacks now days. Absolutely no organization before hand. "Pathetic," she told one of the zoid pilots as she dragged him from his zoid only to tie him to the rest of his comrades.  
  
~*~*~*  
  
Four of the five bandits were thrown into the village goal less than an hour later. What surprised the three men and the one women, more than the fact they had been defeated by one zoid, was that the women who defeated them was standing guard.  
  
She turned from her spot by the window to look at the four bandits she had captured. Only their leader, a man with bright blue hair streaked with red and black, would met her cool and level gaze. "Let us out," he snarled at Clayr, before spitting at her feet.  
  
"No." Her voice was so calm, so cold, and so measured that is sent shivers down his spine, no one he knew could speak with such a tone after such a zoid battle. "You attacked a defenceless village for the thrill of it. All of you deserve to spend the rest of your lives locked up in a small, filthy, dark cell in the middle of the desert with no one for company but a couple of bugs that feed off your blood."  
  
The bandit was about to open his mouth to tell her what he thought of her description when a village man descended down the stairs into the prison, holding up a lantern. He lit it, the light was strong enough to throw the room into high relief.  
  
And for the first time Clayr wasn't standing in shadows.  
  
Her grey green eyes were like cold gems, glittering on a naturally olive, but quite tanned skin. Her deep black locks were cut short as not to get in her way during hand to hand combat. But what the guard noticed first, apart from her slender and willowy figure or her cold beauty, was the two handguns strapped to her hips in easy reach.  
  
"The Elders wish to speak with you, warrior," he told her, in slight nervousness.  
  
"I think they can wait till the morning."  
  
The man blinked at her. Clayr's slightly husky voice was telling- no ordering - him to leave without having to say it out loud. It was the type of voice that if it told you to do something you dammed well better do it fast.  
  
The man suddenly started to stutter something about something to do with age old tradition, curses, and disrespect, so Clayr sent him a glare that shut him up instantly.  
  
"The Elders can wait until these four are on their way back to the capital. I'll stay here for a while, and get a good nights sleep, I'm sure they can understand that." She sat down on the sole chair by the door and crossed her legs over at the ankles. A self satisfied smirk formed over her lips.  
  
This might just turn out to be profitable.  
  
~*~*~*  
  
The next morning Clayr stood in front of the three village Elders. They frowned at the sight of her apparel; a tight black sleeveless shirt, and slightly loose black cargo pants, her handguns still strapped in place.  
  
"You realise you people need a protector right?"  
  
"Yes," one of them snapped. "We were thinking about hiring you on, warrior. Considering you were already here and have proved you skills as a zoid pilot. Would you be willing to accept?"  
  
"If I did what would be in it for me?" she asked, inspecting her nails.  
  
"The satisfaction of protecting an almost defenceless town." The oldest of the three sighed and offered her a monthly price that was good for a mercenary.  
  
Clayr gave it some serious thought, before she made up her mind completely. A self satisfied smirk worked its way over her lips. "Ok, deal. You got yourselves a protector for at least the next six months. Do you have any good maps of the area that I could have? I'll also need to know what kinds of weapons the people around here have. Is there any place 'round here I could stay for that time?" They gave her a room to use in the town's only inn.  
  
With a content inner sigh Clayr wandered over to the inn, and her home for the next six months or so. Anyone who looked at her would have seen the confident, tough and determined woman in her twenties that looked as if she could hold her own in any fist fight.  
  
The inn room was quite big for a town as small as this one. It just showed how much these people wanted to have someone look over them while they went about their daily business. A door led from the main living area and into her bedroom, compete with a double bed set with clean pressed sheets. Another door off the main room led to a reasonably sized bathroom with a shower behind a frosted glass screen.  
  
Clayr sat down on the edge of her bed and took her belongings out of her large black bags before she stood again at put them in her chest of drawers against one bedroom wall, leaving only a change of clothes and her bathroom necessities on the bed. She locked the main door sat back down on the bed to take her dusty boots off.  
  
"I hope I'll be sufficient enough to protect this place. Somehow, dunno why, I think I won't be," she told the air in front of her. "I'll see if I can call in some reinforcements or something once I know the place like the back of my hand. Better than that even." With her second sigh of the day she scooped up her bathroom gear and change of clothes and wandered into the bathroom with only the thoughts of a really nice hot shower and who she should call on her mind.  
  
Clayr didn't know it then, but calling in reinforcements would be one of the smartest things she would ever do.  
  
~*~*~*  
  
**peering over back of computer chair** It wasn't to bad I hope. Please review if you wasn't me to write more of this little ficcy I came up with one day during science class.  
  
Flame me if you want, tell me what I should do to make it better. Thanks a heap for reading anyway!  
  
GalPhoe. 


	2. Nicholas

I hope people who did read the prologue of this liked it. If you didn't feel free to flame me all day. That way I an roast marshmallows! **big grin**  
  
ubBRYNING PROTECTOR.  
  
Chapter 1: Nicholas.  
  
By Galux Phoenix./u/b  
  
Moonbay had gotten Clayr's call one day while she was doing a couple of quick errands for Dr. D. she had returned to the apartment she and Irvine were living in, no sooner had she opened the door and stepped inside the phone started to go off. Moonbay pounced on it in hope of a job or anything else that might get her some more money.  
  
"Hello, Moonbay here." She got was a quiet chuckle from the other end.  
  
"Sounds like you think I'm here to give you money, girl. Typical," a slightly husky voice told her. A slightly husky voice Moonbay knew *very* well. Moonbay smiled warmly at the air in font of her.  
  
"Hey, Clayr. What's going on with the Byrning Mercenary these days, hmm?" Moonbay's voice warmed at the sound of one of her closest friend's voice.  
  
"It's the Byrning Protector at the moment," Clayr told her unable to keep the dryness out of her voice. "Small village brought me in a few days ago."  
  
"Is that the truth?"  
  
"That is what I just told you." Moonbay laughed, Clayr always was a serious person, no time for jokes, unless it was sarcasm. Very military like in that way.  
  
"Anyway, I called to see if you could possibly get you to send one of your little friends to help me out down here. Lirael, the village I'm in, needs more than just me when it comes to protecting, a girl can only do so much with one zoid." Moonbay gave her head a shake. Clayr was usually the one who said girls could do *anything* if they put their minds to it. "The last attack involved at least five bandits. Four of them I got, but one decided to take off. And I only got that many because they were old, worn ground zoids with idiots for pilots. If any had been air born of smarter I would have been toast. So do you now understand what I'm trying to say here, Moonbay?" Clayr explained to one of her oldest friends.  
  
"You want me to find someone -they'll have to be at least a bit crazy- who I can send in to help you out when you get into too much trouble?" Moonbay's tone was dry.  
  
"Nailed it in one. You are getting smarter, I think hanging around all those military types is rubbing off on you."  
  
"Ha. Ha. I'll see what I can do for you, girl. Someone should arrive in a few weeks, a month at the max. shouldn't be too hard to find someone crazy enough with all of my persuasion skills." Moonbay grinned. She had the *perfect* person in mind for Clayr. Someone who wasn't going to be afraid to tell Clayr she should lighten up a little more often, or for her to shut up for a while.  
  
"Stop grinning, Moonbay," Clayr told her, amused. Moonbay was slightly taken aback. How did Clayr always now when she was thinking up new and more evil ideas just by a conversation over the phone? "I'll talk to you later, Moonbay. Don't go and do anything I wouldn't. Say hello to Irvine for me. talk to you later."  
  
"Oh no, you don't! You are going to tell me what you've been doing with yourself for the past year. Spill it girl," the Gustav driver ordered firmly. "you are not getting away *that* easily!"  
  
~*~*~*  
  
Two weeks after her conversation with Moonbay, in which the Gustav pilot had managed to get Clayr to tell every detail of the past year, she had just woken from a nap she had to pass some time when a sharp knocking came from the main door. Grumbling under her breath for a moment Clayr yanked open the door to reveal a nervous young man in his mid teens who was shifting from foot to foot.  
  
"Yes?" she asked.  
  
"Um, there's, ah, and unknown zoid approaching from the east, ma'am." Her addressed her with the formality of respect.  
  
"What type of zoid?" Her mind was in a high speed mode as she strapped on her twin pistols with fast hands.  
  
"We don't know, ma'am. We haven't had a good look at it."  
  
As soon as the words had left his mouth, Clayr was out of her room, locking the door behind her. "Let's move then." She jogged down the hall towards the back door, an her zoid. "Did it look as if it was going to attack?"  
  
"Not sure, ma'am. Not many of us have had any experience with zoid," he said and he ran to catch up to her, breathing heavily as he went. Clayr jogged down the stairs and climbed into Unseen Hunter's cockpit briskly before turning her zoids and bounding off towards the direction of the approaching zoid.  
  
For some very strange reason, she felt nervous. Clayr hadn't been this nervous since she had first started to compete in zoid battle with a few of her old friends. She thought about it, frowning, for a few minutes and her zoid ran in the direction of the unknown zoid. Then with some horror she realised *why* she was nervous and edgy.  
  
She wanted to show the Elders that she was worth the money they paid her each month in exchange for her services.  
  
Clayr Byrning was letting a bunch of old folks in a village hundreds and hundreds of kilometres from the capital city of the empire, influence her so much she wanted them to be proud to have her as their protector.  
  
Now that was something that she hadn't done before. Disgusted with herself she turned all of her attention back to the task at hand. Once she was reminded of the possible zoid battle that was ahead of her she smiled at the chances of someone with even a scrap of piloting talent. Excitement ran through her veins. She hadn't had anyone to battle against since the bandits she fought when she arrived, let alone anyone with skills, and she was itching for a fight to release pent up energy.  
  
~*~*~*  
  
Lieutenant Nicholas Bane of the Guardian Force, mainly called Nick by most people, gave his head a shake at the folly of his friend. Sure Moonbay was pretty cool about everything and was a good friend, but she was different when she had another crazy idea, though she made sure that it was put into action. Immediately. The tanned Gustav driver could be very determined, not to mention stubborn, when it came to something she wanted.  
  
With a sigh he lent back in the zoid's cockpit chair. Nicholas closed his eyes and let himself fall asleep, the zoid knew where to go as it had been pre programmed. Another useful invention one of his cousins, Thomas, helped him install. But sleep wouldn't come.  
  
Moonbay had told him to keep his guard up and not show any weakness anywhere near the new people he was going to be working with. She had told him they would use that weakness until he finally gave in to them. bored for the millionth time during the trip he started to remember the conversation in which Moonbay had managed to convince him to talk his zoid and himself to a remote little town hundreds of kilometres from the capital city.  
  
He had wandered into her office in the main Guarding Force base on a sunny afternoon when the rest of his friends were out mucking about in their zoids, making the most of the little free time they actually had left together.  
  
The first thing he noticed when he walked into the room was the wicked grin spread over Moonbay's tanned face. Nick took a few steps back. "I think that I should turn around right now and run like crazy considering that you look as if you just thought a some wild idea that will most likely get me into trouble. Explain to me why I shouldn't. Moonbay," he said to the women sitting in a chair that leant against the wall.  
  
"I was going to offer you a job, but it looks like you aren't interested. Such a shame. It looks like I'll have to find another incredibly brave, strong -not to mention cute- zoid warrior to help out a town full of beautiful young women." Moonbay gave a melodramatic sigh. Nick frowned at her. She was trying to flatter him into willingly helping out a small town most likely in the middle of nowhere.  
  
"You're not going to give this up until I'm well on my way to this town, are you?" Nick asked her tiredly, dropping his normal cocky behaviour for a while.  
  
She smiled. "No, I'm not."  
  
"So, now fill me in on this far away place you're so keen to send me away to." He sat down in a chair opposite her as she started to explain the situation of Lirael.  
  
But, Nick noted as she watched the countryside pass by, Moonbay never mentioned the name of the protector, or what zoid they had for that matter.  
  
~*~*~*  
  
Clayr muttered a few well chosen obscenities under her breath as she zoomed in on the incoming zoid. This zoid was one of only a few zoids of its kind. There were only about fifteen of them in known existence and every one of them was owned by the Guardian Force of the Republican Army, though bandits were always trying to get their hands on one. It was one of the smaller type of zoids, and had outstanding moveability and plenty of room for extra weapons if needed. This particular zoid had been painted dark blue and black in places, darker than the usual colour. Looking at it, even from such a long distance, Clayr's sharp eyes picked out the subtle markings that branded it as the property of the Guardian Force.  
  
She looked the zoid over one more time, shaking her head. "Well I'll be damned. . . "  
  
Hunter ran forward only to come to a halt just over half a kilometre away from the town boundaries. Clayr gazed out of the red screen that was the cockpit windows, with expressionless eyes even though her body hummed with nerves. Her hands flew over the controls, manipulating them with ease, sending out a message to the approaching zoid.  
  
"You are entering the vicinity of Lirael, I suggest that, unless you have valid reasons to be passing through here, you take another route to your destination." Clayr watched as a window came up on the screen. It was of a man who would have been the same age as her- twenty- five- with dirty blonde hair arranged in a sexy disarray with bright blue eyes and a charming smile. Though it did charm her.  
  
"State your purpose, warrior." Clayr's tone was emotionless.  
  
The man's face suddenly became serious as her saw her zoid and the image that came up on his screen. "I am Lieutenant Nicholas Bane of the Guardian Force. I was informed that there might be a need for a zoid warrior in this town. The present protector sent for another fighter to help against bandits. Was I told correctly?"  
  
The woman sighed and turned her zoid around. "Yes. You better come and talk to the Elders, then."  
  
~*~*~*  
  
Nick watched with some surprise as the black Zaber Fang sauntered off back towards the village. He hadn't ever seen a zoid like that before, sure he knew people with Zaber Fangs, but he didn't know anyone who had a black one. The woman who had spoken to him was so expressionless it almost scared him. He tore his mind off the woman with starling eyes, and started to look over the town. It did look as if it was a thriving community, though it could do with patching up in a few places. The woman jumped out of her cockpit once she had parked her zoid next to one of the largest buildings in the town.  
  
"Welcome to Lirael, Nicholas Bane. Let us hope that you live up to your training."  
  
"What's your name?" he asked her as he climbed out.  
  
"Clayr." Again, the voice was flat.  
  
"Last name?"  
  
"Byrning." She led him into the building, and he noticed the twin guns on her belt. She reminded him of someone, but he couldn't think who.  
  
"So, Clayr Byrning, what is the situation here?" Nick asked her smoothly, trying to see who far she would go.  
  
"Bandits. They come a lot and one Fang isn't going to be enough against air born zoids, that's why I called in back up. As much as I hate to admit it, I can only be in one place at a time, and against five zoids one of them is bound to get through my defences, no matter how good they are. Your zoid can help me there. You have sniper capabilities, higher missile storage, and better moveability. Not to mention the extra training." That was the longest speech she had made in a few years.  
  
Nick's brows knitted in thought. "It seems that you do have quite a bit on your hands, Clayr."  
  
"Then let us hope you know how to use that Gun Sniper of yours properly," Clayr told him with a small smirk.  
  
"Not many people know what a Gun Sniper is, so how did you?" Nick asked his interest sparked.  
  
"I'm a mercenary, I'm paid to know these things." With that she took him to see the Elders.  
  
~*~*~*  
  
hope you liked that chappie. I had fun writing it, so how bout you have fun reviewing it. **big grin**  
  
Gal Phoe.  
  
P.S. The button you want is down there V. 


End file.
